NurseEye watches the elderly so you don't have to

Researchers at the Fraunhofer
Institute in Germany have developed a video surveillance system
for hospitals and care homes that can detect with patients have
fallen or are in distress.

The idea behind NurseEye is to provide support for skilled care
and nursing staff: aging populations mean that demand for
healthcare services is going to rise over the coming decades and
there won't be enough human carers.

Cameras can be installed in quiet corners and corridors of care
homes and hospitals, while image recognition software will be able
to detect a patient in distress and then automatically alert the
nearest employee with an alarm on their mobile device. If the
healthcare employee acknowledges the alarm, he or she will be able
to access the video footage from the camera and see the exact
location of the event on a map.

Erik Krempel, the project lead, told Wired.co.uk that a key
challenge was making sure that the fall detection algorithm worked
with off-the-shelf CCTV cameras. It would have been easier to
detect such problems if the team had used stereo cameras, but that
would have hindered adoption of the technology.

The second challenge was privacy. Because of the sensitive
nature of the footage, the system places a huge emphasis on data
protection, making sure that it complies with strict German privacy
laws. All cameras are equipped with monitors that show how the
collected data is processed. As long as no emergency has been
detected, the data is only analysed by the special software:
patients and hospital staff cannot view the footage on demand. When
an emergency is detected, the monitor image changes, so that the
distressed patient will be able to see that a call for assistance
has been sent.

NurseEye is currently a prototype, but Krempel told Wired.co.uk
that "we know that hospitals and care facilities are very
interested in the concept" and that the team plans to commercialise
the product in the future.